María Evangelina Cobo Zaballa: WHO DISCOVERED BRAZIL?

The Fifteenth Century passed in a continuous war between conquests, colonizations and discoveries. What an elegant way of giving name to so savage invasion! At the time the omnipotent kingdom of Portugal wanted to control the trade of extreme Far East and was carrying out it, like everyone else, armed up to the teeth. Enrique, “The Navigator”, get tired of invading, occupying and annexing land foreign to the Lusitanian crown. Madeira, Azores and Cabo Verde, provided the springboard to the Portuguese ships soon to reach the Brazilian coasts. It was not because yes. They did not set sail into the unknown for nothing. The boss, then, cunning as today, surely, knew where they were sending their men. If it is a case, those of their kind and cash were going to squander their old Spanish gold coins, in solidary actions without profit! Respecting the distances, there is not much difference between the evil spell made today with the usual silence of lambs, with those made by others with different collars. After, located the booty they organized the people to their whim. They put name to a cause and throw the flesh of others to the adventure, not caring a holy rosary their death or resurrection. Through the descriptions found in diverse scrolls of the, XIIIth and XIVth, century, the powers of those troubled times, Catholics and Protestants of the current Europe, had knowledge of the existence of a rich land in gold and silver, fertile in spices and wood dyeing, to another side of the ocean, just after the so called, “the end of the world”, Finisterre. Portuguese, Spanish, English, French and Dutches, all had the same Holy Spirit, zeal and intention: to moor, to usurp, to clear, to steal, to pinch and to pluck, then, submit the invaded territories to enrich their thrones so the more the better. And in these were the subjects of the Lusitanian kingdom when they arrived at the Atlantic Coasts of that wonderful and incomparable place, already described by Vespúcio, as Garden of Eden, Brazil. Embroidered their shores, immaculate and white, beaches bathed in green waters, indigoes and turquoises crowned by multitude of palms, which occasionally, distracted were embracing each other. It was all Atlantic Brazilian Coast, an autochthonous green ember full of life, wealth and splendour. From Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul, in tireless tour, The Mother Nature was undressing with compliments of centuries and in devout harmony, the supreme richness and beauty of all the natural kingdoms.

The Tupinambá nation was people of every kind and condition, with their respective and ancestral cultures formed a mosaic of ethnic group, which as *(1) Bécquer and his dark swallows will not turn … The peculiar fauna exceeded the knowledge of the wisest. It was not only for its size or spectacular colour but for its variety wealth, dangerousness and exoticism. Macaws, anteaters, jaguars, iguanas, anacondas, crocodiles … An exuberant and seductively flora shamelessly covering the Virgin Land, suggesting, in all its glory a lustful fan of colours, smells and wisely orchestrated melodies. Between heaven and earth, were marking their space, countless varieties of aroids, firs, bamboos, jacarandas, rubber trees… All of them inhabited by parrots, cockatoos, toucans and the full range of thrushes … The soil, a mantle draped with flowers, medicinal plants, herbs and ripe fruits, perfumed trails and paths in an endless gibberish of indescribable fragrances: gloxíneas, marantas, anturiums, oregano, rue, jalap, sarsaparilla …Ferns strong and big as palm trees and small and soft like adiantros. Avocados, passion flowers, pineapples and guarding, all, this Gaugerian´s inspiration it was a hundred of paradisiacal muses, the *(2) “Muses Sapientum”, giving up to the wind her golden fruits, from her oscillating and gigantic heart of Banana.

But the most immediate wealth, that, the Portuguese sought to fatten the arks of the United Cannibals, was hidden in a tree: *(3) the, “Caesalpina Echinata”, known by the name of pau-brasil, by the flaming red sizzling that produces at contact with the boiled water. The experts assure that the native owners of the infinite Atlantic Brazilian Coast were using that coveted wood from which they were extracting material for their arrows and dye for their cloths. The name of this tree, pau-brasil, that oxygenated and tinged, from north to south, the land of, *(4) Eugênia Álvaro Moreyra, comes the name of the territory that gave birth generating the light and the sap of the life: Brazil. Officially, Brazil was discovered by, Pedro Alvárez Cabral, on April 22 of 1.500, before but, others walked for its beautiful landscapes, including, the Portuguese, Joao Ramalho and the Spanish, Vicente Yánez Pinzón and Alonso Ojeda. And followed the steps of the Portuguese kingdom, Dutch, English, Spanish and French they send their troops to the robbery assault and plunder, too. As they obtaining the desired wealth they were embarking the majestic booty course to the former Europe, for joy ostentation and power of all the kingdoms of the earth and heaven. In this endless fro carrying to the Portuguese Court the stolen and to send to the new territory conquest settlers…The Brazilians coasts started being invaded, for another type of spoliators. Pirates, corsairs, buccaneers, filibusters were besieging the lands of, *(4) Bartira, a Tupi´s warrior. To protect themselves of the ferocious assaults, the settlers, venturing into the jungle and step by step, were stripping it of its natural asset. The more they were getting into the wild earth, the more wealth was finding. There… it was, there, in the heart of the mother of all mothers, in the Virgin Land, the real one, the dreamed one and idealized, El Dorado, because there, inside that mysterious land and in the deepest of her womb, there, The Mother Earth gestated, without moderation, thousands of beautiful platinum uterus, golden, silver, leaden, black, red. The cave of Ali Baba fell short… Even the thieves!

Were raining down the years, 1.680-90, and the fever of the gold assaulted to the soil of, the *(5) Cruzeiro do Sul. And came the golden seekers of all the limits of the old continent and took the salt of the land’s entrails. They cleaned and pinched all the veins and the gems that could and more … And as the native Brazilians were escaping to the yoke and to the slavery of the Portuguese and, these, needed free manpower to continue robbing the mother land of, *(7) Joaquín Jose Xavier, "Tiradentes", they introduced the African slaves. The extermination of the flesh for the power and the glory was the daily Manna. Meanwhile, the peoples were growing and were multiplying giving origin to new races, new beliefs, new customs, the so called Mamelukes or malucos, mulattos … Winds of freedom were blowing as far back as the 18th century and Brazil becomes free of Portugal. Liberates the slaves and the freedom comes with name of republic: Republic of the United States of Brazil, but even thought, the winds blew, they did not take with the ruffians … The landowners mortgaged their lands and with them, all, their richness and took possession of everything, Bank&;Multinationals& Friends…

After, all, that hustle and bustle of peoples, invasions, colonizations, wars, guerrillas warfare, conspiracies, assaults and ambushes. Although, armed robbery and unceremoniously kingdoms, queens, kings, emperors, governors, corsairs, pirates, buccaneers, filibusters and multinationals, Brazil continues being, until today, as say the verses of its *(8) national anthem, “ giant for his own nature / is beautiful, strong, intrepid Colossus / and your future reflects this greatness”. In the incredible ones, 8.514.872 km2, they inhabit, 188.098.127, souls. The Amazon continues, yet, being the lung of the world. The river, unrepeatable wet-nurse, takes in her bosoms the major volume in water and the major fish farming wealth … Still the fertility continues blessing the incomparable Brazilian soil. In its flora and fauna, even today, there are species to be classifying, the strength it of saws, islands, forests, lakes and mountains. The force of the divine Iguaçu, with it’s, 276, cataracts, jumps and crags, still can move many of the mills of the old Europe. And the people … especially the peoples … wonderful water-colour of races and cultures … The Brazilians women and men carry in their genes the zeal of fight and of overcoming. Brazil has everything … everything … everything …! Only they lack a thing … An alone thing … not allow to steal! The day so, the curse spell in silently of lambs, will vanish and Brazil will be the powerful star of the South. As Roberto Carlos, usually, said… *(9) “É uma brasa, mora!”

Born in flying dream.